Improvement in life-preservers



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WARREN A. SIMONDS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN LlFE-PRESERVERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 16,555, dated February 3, 1857.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, \VARREN A. SrMoNDs, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Life-Preserver, of which the following is a full, clear, and eXact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a plan of a life-preserver; Fig. 2, a section on the line a: a: of Fig.1; Fig. 3, a plan of the interior casing or air-vessel; Fig. 4, a smaller air-vessel. Fig. 5 shows the position which the life-preserver occupies when a person is in the water.

The object of my invention is to obtain a life-preserver that shall at all times be ready for use, and shall be protected from the accidents to which those of the ordinary construction of india-rubber cloth are liablenamely, being cut or torn, and thus rendered useless.

To enable others skilled in the art to understand my invention, I will proceed to describe the manner in which I have carried out the same.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 represents the outside casing, which is divided into two parts A and B, which are attached together for a part of theirwidth on each side at a b by the strips 0 d on their ends, leaving a space 6 where they are not attached. These casings are constructed in the following manner: Two thicknesses of india-rubber cloth or other suitable material are attached together by the seams f, leaving spaces or chambers 1 between them. These are filled with ground cork, and the ends being closed the strips 0 (Z ht are formed across their ends, the sides 0 and 19 being closed up. These strips are now attached to corresponding strips on the lower halves, except at O D, thus forming cases or sacks for the reception of the inflated air-vessels, Figs. 3 and 4. (In the drawings the openings O and D are merely closed by cords and eyelets, but are intended to be hermetically closed after the air-vessels are in place, as shown in Fig. 2.)

The air-vessels, Figs. 3 and i, composed of india-rubber cloth or other suitable material of two or more thicknesses and capable of retaining the air, may be divided into any convenient number of air-compartments E, each being separately inflated through suitable valves 70. The inflated air-vessel, Fig. 3, is inserted in the case A, and Fig. 4 in B, and the ends O and D are properly secured. The connect-ion between the parts A and B at a Z) may be further strengthened by pieces of elastic cloth m it placed between them, allowing the slit or space eto be pressed open far enough to admit the head of a person.

The above-described apparatus, when to be used as a life-preserver or float, is attached to the person in the following manner: The opening a being slipped over the head, the portion B rests beneath the chin, supporting the head, as shown in Fig. 5. The larger portion A rests on the shoulders and baek,wherc it is secured by suitable cords F G and H I passed around the body. Thus while the head is well supported above the water the body is maintained in a position well adapted for swimming, the limbs being entirely free and unobstructed. When not in use as a life-preserver, its form is well adapted for use as a pillow on board of vessels.

In addition to the convenience of form which so well suits it to the purposes for which it is intended, a life-preserver as thus constructed is much safer than those made in the ordinary manner of inflated india-rubber cloth, the outside shell or casingprotecting the inflated air-vessel from being cut or torn when coming in contact with rough and hard substances, and even should one or more of the air-chambers E become perforated the buoyancy of the cork in the outer case will materially aid in supporting the person in the water.

\Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A life-preservin g float composed of separate and independent sectional chambers or airvessel's covered and surrounded upon all sides by exterior sectional floats filled with cork or other solid buoyant material arranged in the manner substantially as herein set forth.

WVARREN A. SIMONDS. \Vitnesses:

P. E. TESCHEMAOHER, THOS. RJRoAcH. 

